Scores Add Up To Low Marks

School Requirements May Be Key

August 11, 1989|By MARC R.TURPIN Staff Writer

ISLE OF WIGHT — High school students not enrolled in the county school system's advanced studies curriculum may be missing the grade in mathematics, based on achievement test results released Thursday to the school board by the superintendent.

Test results of the 1989-90 school year show that in the ninth through 11th grades, students' math scores are in the mid- to upper 30th percentile. Twelth-graders had the highest score, achieving at the 41st percentile.

School Superintendent Vito Morlino said that those scores may be where they are because the math standards in the general studies program, which is not intended to prepare students for college, require only two years of math.

"By and large, a significant number of youngsters in the 11th grade are not taking math," Morlino said, because they had met the requirement when they completed the 10th grade.

Morlino noted that a small percentage of students are enrolled in the division's advanced studies curriculum and are required to take three years of math: first-year algebra and two courses above it.

The results show a sharp decline in math scores from the seventh to the eighth grades. Seventh-graders scored in the 48th percentile while eighth-graders scored at the 40th per centile.

Eighth-graders in Suffolk and Surry public schools fared better than their peers in Isle of Wight, both scoring at the 45th percentile. The state average at that level was 56.

Morlino added that the last school year was the first that the Iowa Test of Basic Skills and Iowa Test of Achievement and Proficiency were given throughout the division.

In the 1987-88 school year the fourth, eighth and 11th grades were tested, and Morlino released a comparison with last year's results.

In 1987-88, fourth-graders scored at the 53rd percentile in math, while last year's fourth-graders scored at the 49th percentile.

Last year eighth-graders scored in the 40th percentile in math, and students the previous year had scored at the 36th percentile.

In 1987-88, 11th-graders scored at the 39th percentile in math, and last year it was at the 37th percentile.

Morlino said that each year brings a new group of students with different abilities and that may also explain why scores increase or drop by a few percentage points from year to year.